The jury in the Oracle v. Google lawsuit has decided that nine lines of code in Android did violate Java copyrights. However, the jurors could not agree whether Google’s use of Java constituted “fair use.” As a result of the mixed decision, Google has moved for a mistrial.
Legal experts say a mistrial would be good news for Google and Android developers. Stanford Law School Fellow Brian Love noted, “I would tend to agree with Google’s position that there can’t be an ultimate determination on infringement until the fair use question is answered, and if jury can’t decide if what Google did was fair use then it can’t say that what Google did was copyright infringement. Because if something is fair use, then by definition it can’t be copyright infringement.”
